The Path to Somerset
About this ebook
"The novel's sweeping historic detail and bewitching blend of rivalries and romances will dazzle devotees of Tudor England" - Publishers Weekly
After the tragic romance of Jane the Quene, this second book in The Seymour Saga trilogy takes a dark turn through an era in which King Henry VIII descends into cynicism, suspicion and fits of madness - and in which mistakes mean death.
Edward Seymour's future is uncertain. Although his sister Jane bore Henry the son he'd sought for twenty years, when she died in childbirth, Henry's good nature died with her. Now the fiercely ambitious Edward must carve a difficult path through Henry's shifting principles and wives. Challenged at every turn by his nemesis, Bishop Stephen Gardiner, Edward must embrace ruthlessness in order to safeguard not only his own future but England's as well.
This is the account of Henry's tumultuous reign, as experienced by two enemies whose fierce disagreements over religion and common decency fuel epic struggles for the soul of the nation. And for power.
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About the author
Janet Wertman grew up within walking distance of three bookstores and a library on Manhattan's Upper West Side - and she visited all of them regularly. Her grandfather was an antiquarian bookdealer who taught her that there would always be a market for quirky, interesting books. He was the one who persuaded Janet's parents to send her to the French school where she was taught to aspire to long (grammatically correct) sentences as the hallmark of a skillful writer. She lived that lesson until she got to Barnard College. Short sentences were the rule there. She complied. She reached a happy medium when she got to law school - complicated sentences alternating with short ones in a happy mix.
Janet spent fifteen years as a corporate lawyer in New York, she even got to do a little writing on the side (she co-authored The Executive Compensation Answer Book, which was published by Panel Publishers back in 1991). But when her first and second children were born, she decided to change her lifestyle. She and her husband transformed their lives in 1997, moving to Los Angeles and changing careers. Janet became a grantwriter (and will tell anyone who will listen that the grants she's written have resulted in more than $20 million for the amazing non-profits she is proud to represent) and took up writing fiction.
There was never any question about the topic of the fiction: Janet has harbored a passion for the Tudor Kings and Queens since her parents let her stay up late to watch the televised Masterpiece Theatre series (both The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R) when she was *cough* eight years old. One of the highlights of Janet's youth was being allowed to visit the Pierpont Morgan Library on a day when it was closed to the public and examine (though not touch!) books from Queen Elizabeth's personal library and actual letters that the young Princess Elizabeth (technically Lady Elizabeth...) had written.
Janet is deep into writing the first book of her next trilogy, which takes up where the Seymours left off to illustrate the life of Elizabeth I. Janet also runs a blog (www.janetwertman.com) where she posts interesting takes on the Tudors, and she’s part of a group of novelists from Southern California who offer interesting panels and discussions to libraries around the state.
